1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer element performance enhancers and more specifically to devices which increase the performance of semiconductor computer elements by regulating their temperature and voltage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the electronics field, it is very important that electrical devices are prevented from overheating and that their power supplies are properly regulated. Various prior art cooling devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,777,975 by P. Aigrain; 2,984,077 by H. Gaskill; 4,253,515 by E. Swiatosz; and 4,375,157 by G. Boesen. Some examples of power regulating devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,952,240 by G. Ruumpol; 4,200,833 by A. Wilkerson; 4,442,339 by T. Mizuno, et al; 4,594,541 by H. Schott; and 4,622,511 by B. Moore.
The semiconductor computing elements which are part of personal or departmental sizes of computers are specified to work over a wide range of temperatures, such as zero to eight-five degrees centigrade. This is because controlling the environment to tighter limits has been assumed to be too expensive for all but the largest type of computer. For example, the ETA-10 supercomputer from ETA Systems, Inc. uses liquid nitrogen to refrigerate the CPU boards, but at a cost of several million dollars. Also, some semiconductor processes (such as bipolar) which were used for fast computers prior to the advent of CMOS technology, did not show pronounced speed improvement when operated at lower temperatures. The chief purpose of cooling systems in mainframe computers has been not so much to speed up operation of the components, but to be able to dissipate the heat produced when they are packed close together in order to reduce lead length delays.
Today, small desk top computers are becoming widely accepted in such areas as artificial intelligence, CAD/CAM and desk top publishing. Users of such systems reach the limit of their machines and want to move to a more powerful model with a minimum of change. These state of the art desk top computers are increasingly being made with CMOS technology. Examples of CMOS technology include the 80386 family of microprocessors from Intel Corporation, the 68000 family of microprocessors from Motorola Corporation and the new RISC microprocessor devices from Advanced Micro Devices Corporation and Sun Microsystems Corporation. Modern computer architecture concentrates these power producing parts of the computer into a few of these key computer elements. These CMOS devices show great improvement in performance when operated at lower temperatures and higher voltages.
However, up until the present time, it has not been deemed to be practical to provide below ambient temperature cooling and more precise voltage regulation to these desk top computer elements.